Clampdown(3:48)

“Clampdown” is a single and a song by The Clash from their album London Calling. The song began as an instrumental track called “Working and Waiting”. It is sometimes called “Working for the Clampdown” which is the main lyric of the song, and also the title provided on the album’s lyric sheet. Its lyrics comment on people who forsake the idealism of youth and urges young people to fight the status quo.

Writing and recording

“Clampdown” was written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones.

The song’s lyrics, written by Joe Strummer, refers to the failures of capitalist society. The wearing of the “blue and brown” refers to the color of the uniforms that are mostly worn by workers. This idea goes along with lyrics that refer to “young believers” who are brought and bought into the capital system by those “working for the clampdown” who will “teach with twisted speech.” Strummer wrote,

The men in the factory are old and cunning
You don’t owe nothing, so boy get running!
It’s the best years of your life they want to steal!
You grow up and you calm down and you’re working for the clampdown.
You start wearing the blue and brown and you’re working for the clampdown.
So you got someone to boss around. It makes you feel big now…

These lyrics are seen to refer to how one gets caught by the capital economic system and its ethos of work, debt, power, position and conformist lifestyle. Strummer, who was a proud and loud socialist, also uses the song’s closing refrain to highlight this mindset and potential trap and offers a warning not to give oneself over to “the clampdown”.